In my last post, I demonstrated how to make a Christmas Wreath. In this post I will show you how to decorate the wreath using a few different ideas and techniques.
Check out the video below to find out how to create the precision bubbles and the bow.
Poinsettia Flower
In this next video, I will show you how to make this Qualatex Taper Poinsettia Flower.
Here are some more fantastic examples of the Poinsettia Flower. This fantastic display was made by Natalie Saunders of The Balloon Room, in Stevenage, UK. Natalie created this display for the recent BAPIA Funday!
Natalie sprayed Silver Tapers to create Pink Tapers to make these gorgeous
flowers!
If you missed the first video on how to make the wreath, click HERE
I love the Qualatex Taper balloon! I believe that it is a balloon that sadly goes unnoticed, as many people are often unsure what to do with it! This is probably why the colour range has been gradually discontinued over the years. Today, I am going to share with you some ideas featuring this versatile balloon that you will hopefully enjoy making, and that will look perfect at your Christmas and New Year's events!
This ingenious entrance decor was created by Luc Bertrand, CBA, of WaW Balloons in Vichte, Belgium for the Qualatex Event Germany a few years ago! It really created a sense of fun and excitement when you walked through it into the main party room!
Please be aware that some of the colours of Taper balloons that I am showing in this article are no longer available; however, all designs are easily adapted by simply changing the colours.
Let us start by looking at what is available in this range!
Rose Gold, Metallic Gold & Silver available in 13" 27" and 38"
38" - Suitable for helium or air filling. I like to use 38" Tapers helium-filled in my centrepiece arrangements to create long and elegant lines.
27" - Suitable for air filling, will not float if filled with helium. These balloons do have a valve but do not be fooled they do not float when filled with helium.
13" - Suitable for air filling only, great for accent detail and centrepiece designs. These balloons require heat sealing.
One of my favourite designs using Tapers is the air-filled Galaxy Ball! These can be made using all the different sizes of Tapers, giving you a small medium and large versions. When made using the 38" balloons, they are an impressively size and work extremely well in large venues where you want to fill ceiling space! One of the best things about this design is that it is very long lasting! Below is a video featuring Mark Drury of Qualatex, who demonstrates how to make the Galaxy Ball on a past episode of BMTV.
Here are a few table arrangement ideas.
The first design is a prototype of a design that I created for the Gala Ball at the World Balloon Convention (WBC) and was even featured on the Oct/Nov/Dec 2010 cover of Balloon IMAGES magazine.
Another noteworthy piece that is worth recreation is this unique flower design, which uses 13" Tapers to extend the petals to create this impressive centrepiece! Helpful hint: use the Metallic Gold Tapers and Chrome Gold 7" latex to transform this piece into a fabulous New Years design!
This eye-catching entrance Arch would be fantastic for either a Christmas or New Years Eve event, simply change the colours like I have done on my computer generated image (see below) to show my client how it would look in the colours of their choice!
To create inspirational design like this, I have used Chris Adamo's Balloon Design Tools https://balloonpro.co
And finally, I want to show you this fabulous idea of using a Galaxy Ball as a rotating mobile!
Using a small rotating motor was a great way to bring this mobile to life! The designer used the same technique as you would use to create a Galaxy Ball (see above), but used fewer balloons so that it was not so full. This decor was created for a Christmas party that is held annually for children being treated at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, London.
If you have never worked with Taper Balloons before, you should definitely try them for your next event. You can easily make some truly impressive decor with them!
I really love to work with Qualatex®Starpoint and Taper balloons. There is something really elegant and a little different about these balloons - they are perfect for making balloon walls!
A few weeks ago, I was approached by a brand development agency who wanted me to build two balloon installations using silver square balloons to create an "immersive walkway." The client had been inspired by Andy Warhol's "Silver Balloons" exhibit that he first made in the 60's! The silver square balloons were hand-made - in fact, they were known as "floating Metallic Pillows."
After further discussions with the client and a computer-generated visual image, we agreed that I would create two Starpoint and Taper balloon walls. These balloon walls offered the fabulous shiny effect that they were looking for. Plus, we added a little visual movement within the walls by positioning the sections so that it created a slight wave rather than being totally straight.
Today, I am going to share with you some simple steps on how to make these fabulous balloon walls!
Firstly, I created a design on my computer for my client to see and approve. This also functioned as my working design sheet on the day. This is really easy to do. You simply go to www.Qualatex.com and download the balloon images that you want to use. I love the fact that they save as a .png file, which means that it does not have any background to the image! I then simply added and arranged the balloon images in a WORD document to create the design of the proposed wall.
Each wall consisted of forty 40" Silver Starpoint balloons and seventy-seven 27" Silver Taper Balloons.
We found it easier to make the wall in smaller sections rather than trying to build the wall in one go. We connected eight Starpoint balloons together using a cable tie gun before inflation, making sure to not to connect the valve points. We tied these after inflation.
Connecting the valve points after inflation.
Once we had prepared all the sections, we connected them all together. You can use a cable tie gun or a scrap of 260Q. Both work very well!
You can see from this photo how the balloons looked when connected together, several people commented on how they did not look like balloons once they were connected!
The first section of wall made - sharing our work-space with some amazing vintage dummies.
To inflate the foil balloons we used the Premium FoilPro™. This machine is designed for easy, hands-free (using a foot pedal) inflation of foil balloons as well as latex and balloons that require higher-pressure. The great thing about this inflator is that it has a special nozzle that provides the correct inflation pressure for foils, with no risk of damaging self-sealing valves.
Each wall was made up of five sections as shown above. Once all the sections were prepared, we connected them together.
Here is a view of the wall from outside - we had to make sure that it looked good from both sides!
This was a really great project to work on. We learned a lot on the way. Needless to say, that the second wall was made in half the time of the first wall! The client was really happy and gave us great feedback!
"We loved working with you on this project and want to thank you for doing such a fab job,. Everyone loved the installation!"
A huge thank you to my team, Nicci Rene and John Bowler. And thank you Nicci, for the great photographs!
This is a great design that is perfect for Christmas, but to be honest just change the colours and it would suit other occasions too! The great thing about this design is that it is all air-filled and will last for many weeks, therefore it would be ideal to decorate shopping malls, car showrooms and of course parties too! It's a very simple design and you can make a variety of different versions simply by changing the Qualatex Taper balloon sizes. To give this design some scale, each Taper Star is the same height as me, so about 1.6m or just about 5' 6"!
Taper Flowers created by Sue Bowler & friends at the Slovenia Event
With Christmas and New Year fast approaching, it's time to start thinking about the exciting decor you can offer your clients for their events!
Recently I attended the Slovenia Event and was asked if I could create decor for the 'opening' festivities. I had very limited time and was a little unsure how many 'helpers' I would have, so I decided to make decor that would have great visual impact but quick and easy at the same time!
(Just to note, I had a great team in Slovenia who helped me to make these awesome flowers... thank you!)
As a child I remember Halloween as a time when we played fun games like 'dooking' for apples or apple bobbing which is probably a more familiar term for most, but that was more than a few years ago...
Halloween I am excited to say is still on an upward trend, with overall sales in the balloon and party sector increasing year on year!
So what will you be doing to make this a successful Halloween for you? (See below for the design recipe to create Funny Face Taper Jack on the left).
